The locations aren't the same, as you can see from your printouts.

This is why Time.Equal exists. See http://play.golang.org/p/fEfW-7nfZV.

I think you are missing my point. The time.Time documentation specifically says:

The zero value of type Time is January 1, year 1, 00:00:00.000000000 UTC.

therefore one would reasonably expect a zero-value time.Time (as constructed by time.Time{}) to compare equal to the one in which the timezone is explicitly UTC rather than nil.

Here are some other quotes from the time docs:

Note that the Go == operator compares not just the time instant but also the Location. Therefore, Time values should not be used as map or database keys without first guaranteeing that the identical Location has been set for all values, which can be achieved through use of the UTC or Local method.

and

Two times can be equal even if they are in different locations. For example, 6:00 +0200 CEST and 4:00 UTC are Equal. This comparison is different from using t == u, which also compares the locations.

This issue is more or less a duplicate of #10089.

Yes, working as expected.